Chevrolet Ramps Up Incentives on Most 2014 Models in March

In order to ramp up sales, Chevrolet is offering two incentive promotions in March, Automotive News reports. The automaker is offering supplier pricing on all Silverado light-duty and heavy-duty pickups through its Truck Month promotion, as well as supplier pricing or less on the rest of its 2014 model lineup (excluding the Corvette Stingray and SS sedan) through the Chevy Open House Event.

The deep discounts are intended to increase sales of the slow-selling redesigned light-duty 2014 Silverado 1500 pickup, as well as the outgoing 2014 Silverado Heavy Duty pickups to make room for the refreshed heavy duty 2015 models that are arriving on dealer lots. A summary plan sent to dealers describes the reason for the big incentives:

"It's no secret that Silverado sales are vitally important to our mutual success. Dealers everywhere want and need Truck Month to win against Ford and Ram."

While redesigned vehicle launches generally boost model sales, the Silverado and its GMC Sierra platform-mate have lost market share to Ford and Ram since they went on sale last summer. In four of the last five months, sales of GM pickups made up 33 percent (or less) of pickup truck market share, lower than the usual 35-40 percent, Automotive News reports.

With the Truck Month promotion, buyers can purchase a vehicle for dealer invoice plus destination and a $150 program fee. Discounts through the Chevy Open House Event will be the same as those on the Silverado pickups or even lower. Through the promotion, a Silverado 1500 crew cab two-wheel-drive model with the All Star Edition package will be discounted from $37,520 to $30,828, according to an example in the summary.

"GM has faced an intense full-court press by its competitors Ford and Ram," Brian Johnson, an analyst at Barclays Capital wrote in a note to investors this week. “The result: the [pickup] launch has been arguably the least successful large pickup launch over the last 15 years.”

In addition to the Chevy Open House Event, GM will offer Open House Event incentives for Buick and GMC models. GM won’t offer the Truck Month promotion to those brands, though the automaker hasn’t specified whether the Sierra pickup will be included in the Open House Event.

The March promotion follows a February promotion where Presidents Day discounts were offered on V-6 Silverado pickups, the Malibu, Tahoe, and other models.